Apple extends lead over Samsung, gains on Google in U.S. smartphone market

According to a fresh report from comScore, Apple has shown positive growth in the important U.S. smartphone market for the first months of 2013, boosting hardware shipments to outpace rival Samsung and eating up mobile OS share to the detriment of Google's Android.

Source: comScore

The market analytics firm reported the most recent from its MobiLens service on Thursday, showing Apple gained 3.9 percent in both smartphone hardware and operating system market share during the three-month period ending in February. From November 2012 to February 2013, Apple's share of the handset market went from 35 percent to 38.9, while iOS made the same change.

Major rival Samsung also saw gains, but only managed 1 percent growth, a little over one fourth of Apple's performance. The Korean electronics giant's share rose to 21.3 percent of the U.S. market, up from 20.3 percent in November.

Apple and Samsung were the only top 5 handset makers to exhibit growth during the three-month period, with HTC, Motorola and LG losing respective market shares of 1.7 percent, 1.1 percent and 0.2 percent.

As for the mobile OS space, Google still leads the sector with a 51.7 percent stake, but suffered another monthly decline, this time dropping 2 percent. Apple came in second with a 38.9 percent share of all U.S. smartphone subscribers, while BlackBerry, Microsoft and Symbian rounded out the top 5.

In its analysis, comScore surveyed over 30,000 mobile subscribers in the U.S., and notes smartphone penetration has grown 8 percent since November, with 133.7 million handsets in service as of February.

Apple makes a lot of money, android is great on its own away. Is the iPhone and iPad the absolutely best? Of course. Does Apple make a lot of money? Of course. Does Android have more Market Share? Yes.

So what?

It's such a great time we are having. Remember the Nokia years on phones and MS on PCs? We won't have that again. How much money must Apple do for people to be happy? How many activations for Android?

Apple is just to big and powerful to go away. Same for the Android industry, they have 0 alternatives.

I would love if AI stopped the digitimes rumours, the analysts BS, this sort of bait, and become a little more technically oriented.

Apple makes a lot of money, android is great on its own away. Is the iPhone and iPad the absolutely best? Of course. Does Apple make a lot of money? Of course. Does Android have more Market Share? Yes.

So what?

It's such a great time we are having. Remember the Nokia years on phones and MS on PCs? We won't have that again. How much money must Apple do for people to be happy? How many activations for Android?

Apple is just to big and powerful to go away. Same for the Android industry, they have 0 alternatives.

I would love if AI stopped the digitimes rumours, the analysts BS, this sort of bait, and become a little more technically oriented.

Wouldn't that be great? Someone told me that this site used to be much better: rumours and stories culled through insight and research, rather than just lifting content (almost word for word) from other sites in an embarrassingly transparent effort to cultivate hits through troll-whoring.

Very sad.

In recent months they've managed to sink lower than MacRumours, and that must've taken some doing.

Wouldn't that be great? Someone told me that this site used to be much better: rumours and stories culled through insight and research, rather than just lifting content (almost word for word) from other sites in an embarrassingly transparent effort to cultivate hits through troll-whoring.

Very sad.

In recent months they've managed to sink lower than MacRumours, and that must've taken some doing.

I would take less articles/news for better ones.

Analysts know 0 about tech and strategies from anyone that is trying to push things for the best. Why listen to them? They only know about "market share". For them, selling a thousand potatoes for free until you have to close doors is better than selling 500 for 20 dollars.

Apple's ecosystem is so rich, so great, we have so much things to discuss/discover (as a regular users). Why not focus on that? Create a section for developers, places to discuss ideas, change opinions, etc. This sort of "digitimes" rumours and market share wars need to stop. They are stupid and have 0 relevance.

Dear AI,

Focus on better articles (about products, your own opinions (DED is great), the industry) and do more research. Also, provide a better plataform for us, users. The forums are disgusting (the whole site, actually), the level of articles is very low. Also, we need more and better moderation. With time, such implementations will bring more and better users and the "low level" (that appears more and more) will go away.

If AI becomes a place for discussing and learning, expect nothing short of wonders for everyone.

Wouldn't that be great? Someone told me that this site used to be much better: rumours and stories culled through insight and research, rather than just lifting content (almost word for word) from other sites in an embarrassingly transparent effort to cultivate hits through troll-whoring.

Very sad.

In recent months they've managed to sink lower than MacRumours, and that must've taken some doing.

These sites kinda got screwed when Apple refreshed their entire product line in one day. So we get fluff instead of anything of substance for the time being.

"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example" Mark Twain"Just because something is deemed the law doesn't make it just" - SolipsismX

WS spin: Apple barely hold lead
Fandroids spin: they must have surveyed the same fanboys multiple times.

Of course all surveys are only as reliable as their methodology.

If your wife told you she loved you, do you reply with one of the following:

"But your mother still thinks I am a loser."
"But your sisters think you married me on the rebound."
"But our neighbours still think I continue to have trouble in bed."
"But you only love me for my money."

No, scratch that last one because you don't act like someone who is secure about anything.

Apple makes a lot of money, android is great on its own away. Is the iPhone and iPad the absolutely best? Of course. Does Apple make a lot of money? Of course. Does Android have more Market Share? Yes.
So what?

It's such a great time we are having. Remember the Nokia years on phones and MS on PCs? We won't have that again. How much money must Apple do for people to be happy? How many activations for Android?
Apple is just to big and powerful to go away. Same for the Android industry, they have 0 alternatives.

I would love if AI stopped the digitimes rumours, the analysts BS, this sort of bait, and become a little more technically oriented.

Seriously, I'm tired of the BS.

Stories about market share bore me, too. So what?

It's such a great time we are having. We can actually choose from a variety of news sources and ignore the stories that bore us.

I would love if people would stop whining about AI stories, the complaints, the fights and become more respectful of those who want to enjoy each story for what they are without the white noise.

WS spin: Apple barely hold lead
Fandroids spin: they must have surveyed the same fanboys multiple times.

Of course all surveys are only as reliable as their methodology.

Why is it you think that only Apple fans are the people with any sense? You've got high tier and low tier (read cheap) Android phones -- and two huge releases form Samsung and HTC and Backberry not too long ago -- and Apple has 4 times the growth.

If you wanted to make the point that Apple fans will always look at the Apple glass as half full -- you probably should have picked a situation where the glass wasn't filling at a rate 4 times that of the Android glass. Or are you just an Apple HateDroid and you always make these comments?

Google is selling the Motorola Home division (cable box, etc) for $2.4 billion to another group.

According to Forbes, Google also gets to write off almost a billion a year for seven years, in taxes and acquisition costs. They say it brings the net cost down to $1.5 billion.

Even better, Motorola Mobility came with $3 billion in cash reserves. They can lose money for years without asking Google for help.

So basically, the cost is nothing to Google. In return, they get a phone maker and all its patents.

Great. Google already pays ZERO tax - and then they get a write-off. Still, there's about $6 Billion to amortize here -- and if it weren't coming completely out of the taxpayers pocket, it would still be an opportunity cost for that money that could be doing something useful. Doesn't seem like a win here.

Why is it you think that only Apple fans are the people with any sense? You've got high tier and low tier (read cheap) Android phones -- and two huge releases form Samsung and HTC and Backberry not too long ago -- and Apple has 4 times the growth.

If you wanted to make the point that Apple fans will always look at the Apple glass as half full -- you probably should have picked a situation where the glass wasn't filling at a rate 4 times that of the Android glass. Or are you just an Apple HateDroid and you always make these comments?

Things will get even better for Apple once it is realized that Samsung is causing the Korean Crisis. Samsung's US advertising budget alone could feed all of the starving people of North Korea. Kim Jong-Un is apparently tapping into jealousy and envy over Samsung's splashy success.

Why would the neighbors think that unless she told them or told someone else who told them?/ Please give a hypothetical situation where it makes sense. for example was your wife exhibiting behaviour that some ignorant people could mistake as 'trouble in bed', if so can you elucidate what this behaviour may be. Or maybe the 'trouble in bed' was actually to do with her going complaining to the local Sleeping Beauty mattress surplus store and complaining to one of the salesmen about her aching back from the overly soft mattress.

I would love if AI stopped the digitimes rumours, the analysts BS, this sort of bait, and become a little more technically oriented.

Wouldn't that be great? Someone told me that this site used to be much better: rumours and stories culled through insight and research, rather than just lifting content (almost word for word) from other sites in an embarrassingly transparent effort to cultivate hits through troll-whoring.

In recent months they've managed to sink lower than MacRumours, and that must've taken some doing.

Still doing better than Cult of Mac, unless your desired posts are sponsored accessory reviews and tips that amount to nothing more than changing a System Preference.

MacBook Pro

Eddie James
I have a friend who used an 3g iphone for 4 years before he recently switched to a Galaxy Note II. I bet he won't keep that Note for 4 years without changing.

That's the thing. Whenever I speak to these Android fanatics they apparently all have multiple models. I find that odd. If your last phone is so great then why do you upgrade every six months.

It's the only way to get OS updates.

But seriously, do you remember what the marketing media landscape was like in the mid-00s? Windows hardware users pointed to what people were saying about their product, while Apple users pointed to what they were doing with their product. It's the same with iPhones and Androids. One is a useful productivity tool with longevity, the other is still useful but more concerned about looking fancy* and fashionable, which means a short lifespan.

This is also reflected in marketing; almost every iPhone ad is simply showing various use cases, while Android ads are almost entirely 'Michael Bay meets 5 Gum' with a picture of a phone at the very end.

*Google recently patended a battery-saving mode which disables motion blur and other UI glitz when the battery is <20%.

Google is selling the Motorola Home division (cable box, etc) for $2.4 billion to another group.

There is only one slight problem with your analysis. The $12.5B they paid includes the price for the cable division. You have no idea what they (implicitly) paid. They could be selling that off that at a loss, for all you know.

There is only one slight problem with your analysis. The $12.5B they paid includes the price for the cable division. You have no idea what they (implicitly) paid. They could be selling that off that at a loss, for all you know.

As I mentioned, it's not my analysis. This came from a Forbes article.

And, while you're right that they might've sold the Home division for less (or more!) than what they "paid", it doesn't matter either way.

The point is, Google will not have anywhere near the oft-quoted $12.5 billion sunk into the only parts they care about: the Motorola phone division and its patents.